JuJu Watkins went 4-of-11 on 3-point attempts en route to 30 points, and No. 4-ranked Southern California claimed the regular-season Big Ten Conference championship with an 80-67 defeat of second-ranked host UCLA on Saturday in Los Angeles.
The Trojans (26-2, 17-1 Big Ten) never trailed, scoring the game’s first nine points. USC sent the Bruins to just their second loss of the season — both coming in the crosstown rivalry series.
“The bottom line is … we turned the ball over, we got behind,” UCLA coach Cori Close said in her postgame radio interview. “We made two good comebacks, but we couldn’t get stops.”
UCLA (27-2, 16-2) committed 16 turnovers on Saturday, hardly a dramatic increase from the 15.1 the Bruins averaged per game coming into the contest. However, USC converted those 16 turnovers into 25 points.
UCLA could cash in for only eight points on the Trojans’ 12 turnovers.
The Bruins also struggled for a second time with containing Watkins. The national Player of the Year contender scored 38 points against UCLA in the Feb. 13 matchup at USC. But it was not just Watkins on Saturday.
After the Bruins rallied in the third quarter, chipping a deficit that reached as many as 16 points in the period down to four, Rayah Marshall fed Malia Samuels for an interior basket that ended a 16-5 UCLA run.
Marshall then came away with a steal on the ensuing possession, which led to Kiki Iriafen’s put-back score. Iriafen later came up with a steal and found Watkins in transition for a layup, and then Iriafen closed the period — and a 9-0 USC run — with a jump shot.
The stretch effectively put the game away, with the Trojans lead ballooning to 20 points in the fourth quarter.
“How about the team effort?” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said in her postgame interview with Fox. “We got contributions from everybody, from our freshmen to our seniors. I thought Rayah played like the leader that she is. JuJu was spectacular. Kiki’s second half — to be able to stay focused with the foul trouble.”
Iriafen was limited to two points in just seven minutes in the first half after racking up three personal fouls. She erupted for 15 points after intermission and did not commit another foul, finishing the game with 17 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the floor. She added nine rebounds.
Marshall added six rebounds and five assists, and while Samuels scored only two points off the bench, she posted a plus-13 in 13 minutes on the floor.
“We’ve become a team,” Gottlieb added. “And that’s just really special.”
Watkins was predictably the linchpin on both sides of the floor. She blocked three shots, and her four made 3-pointers marked her third-most in a game this season.
Her second-most was her 6-of-9 performance in the last meeting with UCLA.
Kiki Rice, who led the Bruins with 16 points, struggled to find her shot. She went 3-of-13 from the field overall and 0-for-3 from beyond the arc.
Londynn Jones, who scored 12 points, shot just 2-of-8 from long range and 5-of-13 overall. Lauren Betts finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
–Field Level Media
